Guide: Flash Bios with CH341A (macos/linux)

#1

Tutorial:

  1. Orion-O6 SPI Flash is 1.8v (source) so make sure your CH341A setup includes the 1.8v adapter
  2. Connect everything (see image below)
  3. On macos / linux install flashrom via brew / apt. You need to run this with sudo
  4. Get cix_flash_all.bin for the bios you want to flash.
  5. We need to make this padded for the spi flash rom’s size by executing this command where chip_size is 8388608 (B) and whatever your image_size in (B) is:
dd if=/dev/zero bs=1 count=$((chip_size - image_size)) >> /path/to/cix_flash_all.bin
  1. Now you can flash it via:
sudo flashrom -p ch341a_spi -w /path/to/cix_flash_all.bin

If you’ve done it successful you should have this output (on macos):

flashrom v1.5.1 on Darwin 24.4.0 (arm64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at https://flashrom.org

libusb: info [darwin_detach_kernel_driver] no capture entitlements. may not be able to detach the kernel driver for this device
Found Winbond flash chip "W25Q64.W" (8192 kB, SPI) on ch341a_spi.
Reading old flash chip contents... done.
Updating flash chip contents... Erase/write done from 0 to 7fffff
Verifying flash... VERIFIED.

How I connected it:

CH341A-Orion-O6
CH341A-Orion-O6.jpg3570×2008 3.2 MB

2 Likes
#2

… And if you accidentally broke a leg off while trying to insert it back in: This is the part Nr. Winbond W25Q64JWSSIQ. It is the SOIC-8 208mil variant.

IMG_0621
IMG_0621.jpeg1581×889 610 KB

On Digikey (better spec sheet on the website):
https://www.digikey.de/de/products/detail/winbond-electronics/W25Q64JWSSIQ/11584729

On Mouser: https://www.mouser.de/ProductDetail/Winbond/W25Q64JWSSIQ?qs=YwPsRIUVAOfs3jrAZG2yJQ%3D%3D

Also available on AliExpress.

1 Like
#3

With the correct socket it’s as easy as ever to insert the SPI chip correctly (picture has the broken one since the new one is being delivered, if the AliExpress vendor is good I’ll link to that too since they had 10x for 6€ with shipping)

IMG_0665
IMG_0665.jpeg2374×2374 1.01 MB

#4

Sort of bricked my UEFI by installing the BTRFS driver today and i don’t have a programmer on hand (Waiting for one to arrive), Is there another way to flash UEFI?
Some motherboards support plugging in a flash drive and holding a key combo, Highly doubt the orion supports such feature…

#5

Nope that’s why they have the socketed SPI at least. Also using the correct SPI socket makes this really easy so it’s not that bad. Basically only thing you have to look out for is having the 1.8v down converter plugged in too

#6

Bummer, Oh well guess i’ll wait.
Thanks!

#7

Why couldn’t you perform the BIOS update from USB? You can EFI boot from USB and navigating the EFI shell to a folder on an EFI parition is the same as USB vs nvme on this board.
What does a BTRFS driver have to do with messing up your BIOS installed on the SPI flash anyway?